How to Overcome Decor Setbacks

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4 weeks in, two weeks to go. This One Room Challenge is flying by!! In case you’re new here, check out the past three week’s to see the room, the design plan, and the painting debacle we went through a few weeks ago.

This past week has been a little nuts! Tomorrow I’m flying to California for a cousin’s wedding so I lose the entire weekend to work on projects so I’ve been cramming in as much as I can before we head out. We’ve had a lot of early morning and late nights lately to get everything done in time. If you’ve been following along on Instagram stories you saw quite a few sneak peeks at projects in the works a few days ago.

As with any project, we’ve had our share of setbacks this past week. Here’s just a few that I can think of off the top of my head…

The vinyl for the feature wall that I had all planned out in my head didn’t look super awesome once I got started working on it. Thankfully Expressions Vinyl to the rescue and I’m super happy with how it’s turning out now!!

The giraffe growth chart we’ve been working on is turning out better than I could have imagined but there have been a lot of trial and errors along the way. I can’t wait to show you the finished product!

P.S. I do not recommend using a jigsaw without the shield. My husband like’s to live life on the edge.

I couldn’t find the perfect fabric I was dreaming of for the bench seat. Don’t worry I found something that is gorgeous and totally fits the toddler chic theme.

And the biggest trial of this last week was that darn old dresser. So as you know, I found the perfect, ugly dresser off Craigslist a few weeks ago. It literally could not fit the space more perfectly size wise and has low drawers for my toddler to be independent. Well, that perfect dresser happens to be too old and had 12 3.5 inch drawer pulls and 8 knobs I was looking to replace. Whaddya know?! 3.5 inch drawer pulls aren’t super common.

After doing rough measurements and falling in love with one chrome drawer pull I realized they were about 1/4 inch off and no matter how much pulling and pushing I couldn’t make them work. I was debating filling the holes and redrilling them in the same spot but was nervous about the old and new hole overlapping.

I had quite the debate with myself for a few days as I tried to figure out what to do and convincing myself to fall out of love with the drawer pulls.

I know, it seems ridiculous, but what was a girl to do! I had my heart set on some shiny chrome pulls after I found the perfect crystal knobs to match. Through it all I learned three things I thought I’d share with you on how to overcome decor setbacks the next time you get stuck.

How to Overcome Decor Setbacks

1. Ask trusted friends

I know this seems obvious, but seriously! Think about who has made over furniture in the past (or whatever type of project you’re working on). Who do you trust and can get their honest opinion? Sometimes you just need another person to bounce ideas off of.

I asked friends what they would do and got so many different ideas from them. Thanks ladies!!

2. Ask in social forums

Ask in DIY Facebook groups or post a question with your dilemma on a public DIY forum. I sent in a message to Remodelaholic’s facebook page and the next day they posted my problem on their page with over 400,000+ fans. Within hours I had 50+ replies and more ideas than I knew what to do with on how to handle my drawer pull dilemma.

3. Pinterest it

We all know I’m a major Pinterest fan! Follow me on Pinterest for lots of DIY inspiration! But do you just use Pinterest for inspiration or do you turn to it for help like you would google something? I’ve started turning to Pinterest before google when I run into a problem and realize usually someone has been through the same thing I’ve been through before and they have suggestions on how they fixed it.

Well, after doing all three of those things I decided to fill all the dresser drawer holes with wood filler and buy new drawer pulls that were either longer than the original holes or much shorter so that the new holes wouldn’t overlap the old ones.

Thankfully, Orchard Supply Hardware has a huge assortment of decorative hardware and I found the perfect 128 mm chrome drawer pulls and I am seriously in love! Now that the new holes are drilled (thanks hubby!) I can do one final coat of paint on the drawer fronts tonight and then check the dresser makeover project off the list. ✔️

Oh, and before I forget again…I NEED YOUR HELP! Check out the dresser picture above!

[clickToTweet tweet=”Should I do the crystal knobs square or diamond? #helpneeded” quote=”Should I do the crystal knobs square or diamond? #helpneeded”]

I can’t decide!! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

We’ve made a lot of progress over the past week and here’s the updated list on what is still left to get done.

Project List

Clear out room

Paint room including closet

Create feature wall — almost done!

Makeover old dresser — needs one final coat of paint

Build reading bench— got this cubby from Orchard Supply that is perfect!!

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Hi! I'm Amanda, wife to my high school sweetheart, and momma to two precious girls. When I'm not busy playing with my babies you can often find me covered in sawdust in my garage or hiding in a coffee shop drinking a hazelnut latte. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll find inspiration to create, decorate, and celebrate.

Hi! I'm Amanda, wife to my high school sweetheart and momma to two precious girls. When I'm not busy playing with my babies you can often find me covered in sawdust in my garage or hiding in a coffee shop drinking a caramel latte. Thanks for stopping by!